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Welcome to the RotoBaller NBA Recap. In this feature, we will highlight a few key fantasy basketball takeaways from the games played during last night's slate. These viewpoints can be both positive and negative and will hopefully help to provide insight into different roster moves you should consider making based on trends and statistical nuggets from around the Association.
Fantasy basketball has a lot of moving pieces with all the different scoring settings that are possible to play under, so I will always do my best to spotlight where players gain or lose value in certain game types. For the sake of simplicity and consistency, every time I mention Fantasy Points in these articles I will be using DraftKings' scoring system, which goes as follows: 1*PTS, 0.5*3PM, 1.25*RBD, 1.5*AST, 2*STL, 2*BLK, -0.5*TO. On top of that, bonus points are awarded for Double-Doubles (+1.5) and Triple-Doubles (+3), only one per player at a time.
Without further ado, let's get right into the latest slate of games from the 2021 season and try to figure out how to take advantage of what we saw transpire.
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Saturday, April 3
The Giannis-less Bucks barely edge Sacramento thanks to a Jrue Holiday explosive performance; Utah smashes Orlando for its ninth consecutive win
Every time your team has to play a game without such a substantial player as Giannis Antetokounmpo is known to be, odds are you're definitely going to miss him. That happened yesterday to Milwaukee, which could only defeat 11th-seeded Sacramento by a single point on Saturday night. It was all about offseason-acquisition Jrue Holiday for the Bucks on the match, as Jrue leveled up and dropped a masterful 33-7-11-1-1 stuffed line against Sacto when pretty much every other Bucko was on the low, including Khris Middleton.
On even brighter news, Utah won its 9th straight game without much effort in demolishing Orlando for another W. This is all you need to know: Donovan Mitchell was the best Jazz player of the day, and all he played was 21 minutes. That's right. DoMi put up a team-high 40 FP in those 21 minutes for an average of 1.88 FP/min that clearly lead the slate among all eligible players yesterday. Clarkson, in 21 minutes off the pine, was Utah's second-best player with just 35 FP, with Miye Oni (who!?) getting the largest run at 26 minutes.
- While Joel Embiid made his return yesterday for the Sixers and was great at it (24-8-2 with 3 blocks in just 29 minutes), the bad news came from Charlotte. The Hornets announced that Gordon Hayward will miss at least four weeks with a right foot sprain. That means that Charlotte will be without LaMelo Ball, Malik Monk, and now Gordo too, which opens the door for ultra-large playing time for both Devonte' Graham and Terry Rozier, and also for the likes of the Martin twins and Miles Bridges to rack up nightly chances.
- Although it came down to Jusuf Nurkic getting limited minutes because of the back-to-back situation, Enes Kanter was the best reserve on Saturday with a nice 12-17-4-1-1 stuffed dub-dub for the Blazers. Nurkic is the go-to biggie in Portland, but Kanter has retained quite the value and is still available in almost 30% of Yahoo leagues out there.
- Sacramento Kings' Terence Davis has played 18+ minutes in five consecutive games coming off the bench and his playing time is growing by the day. He had his best game of the season yesterday with a 27-3-1 line and 2 blocks on top of that, hitting also a slate-leading 7 treys. He did it all in 23 minutes, which yielded a massive 1.61 FP/min mark. That's not your daily Davis, obviously, but he makes for a good what-the-heck flier to take in deeper leagues, just in case (1% rostership).
- Wendell Carter Jr. finally started for the Magic after a three-game test-run. He played 34 minutes against Utah yesterday in a game without much story to it, but he was excellent for the second game in a row and has now had back-to-back dub-dubs as a Magic with a 21-12-2 line against New Orleans on Thursday and a 19-12-1 on Saturday. Carter is somehow available in almost 25% of Yahoo leagues these days, so peek your WW as there is a chance you can still grab him for free.
- Moses Brown is far from an under-the-radar player these days, even more now that Al Horford has been shut down ROS and Oklahoma is running with Mo. Brown needed just 23 minutes starting at C yesterday to rack up numbers and put up an über-efficient 10-14 double-double while hitting 4-of-7 FGA and 2-of-4 freebies. The foul trouble impacted his playing time and ultimately his line, but he's been really nice for the now-tanking Thunder. You can still find him available in around 35% of Yahoo leagues.
- The trade deadline has passed in real life and also in most fantasy leagues, but it is getting harder and harder by the day to trust Victor Oladipo. Dipo is now a Miami Heat, but in his two games, he's been as bad as he could have. 6-3-5-2 and 8-1-5-2-1 are his lines, for 20 and 21 FP respectively. Oladipo is clearly below the level he showcased before getting injured, and it's showing. Not liking him just one bit these days... as sad as that is.
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